Key figure pleads guilty to Hired Truck charges

Matt OConnor and Dan MihalopoulosTribune staff reporters

A former high-level city official admitted Friday he participated in a widespread fraud scheme that awarded jobs, promotions and overtime to city workers who campaigned for Mayor Richard Daley and the mayor's favored candidates.

Donald Tomczak, who was the top deputy in the Water Management Department, became the highest-ranking Daley loyalist to plead guilty in the ongoing federal probe of City Hall corruption. He is also the first former official to admit in court that the city rigged the hiring process to favor the politically active in violation of long-standing court orders against patronage.

His admission contrasted with the Daley administration's repeated assertions that there is no evidence of systemic hiring abuses.

Tomczak admitted leading a political army of as many as 250 city workers who campaigned door-to-door for the mayor and candidates for Congress, statewide offices and the City Council after getting marching orders from officials in the mayor's office. He said similar political street operations were run by other city employees.

In pleading guilty to racketeering and tax fraud, Tomczak also admitted pocketing cash bribes and demanding political contributions that together totaled almost $400,000 as the price to obtain work in the city's Hired Truck Program.

He is the 22nd defendant and 11th former city employee to be convicted in the probe.

"There has been a consistent pattern of fraud both in the rewarding of business, at least on the Hired Truck side, and the awarding of promotions, raises and jobs," Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Shapiro told reporters.

Tomczak agreed to cooperate in the federal probe and testify if necessary. He also agreed to hand over $175,000 in illicit proceeds.

In return, prosecutors are backing a sentence of just under 4 years in prison for Tomczak, 70, of Crest Hill. He faced more than 7 years in prison if he hadn't cooperated. Sentencing was postponed indefinitely.

Tomczak's age, as well as heart problems he and his wife have, were instrumental in his decision to cooperate, said his lawyer, Patrick Tuite.

After Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Collins read a lengthy description of Tomczak's wrongdoing, Tomczak disputed only one issue. He said that despite the emphasis on political connections, he had always sought promotions for qualified individuals.

Tomczak admitted that he extorted bribes from at least 10 trucking companies seeking business in the Hired Truck Program and didn't report those payoffs on his income tax returns for four years.

"I was involved in the illegal hiring process at City Hall," Tomczak also declared when U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan asked him to state the wrongdoing in his own words.

Tomczak's conviction comes after federal charges last week that the Daley administration illegally doled out city jobs to reward campaign workers for the mayor and other pro-Daley politicians in a scheme that spanned a dozen years and involved at least four of the largest City Hall departments. The criminal complaints were filed against Robert Sorich, the mayor's longtime patronage chief, and Patrick Slattery, another city official from the Daley family's 11th Ward Democratic Organization.

"I think it's clear from this plea agreement and from the complaints that we filed last week that we have a number of people cooperating with us at very high levels of the city who are giving us more and more information," Shapiro said. "And the more information we get, the more places we are able to investigate."

Despite the charges against Sorich and Slattery, city officials continued to assert earlier this week that there is no evidence of widespread, illegal political hiring.

"I believe there have been isolated instances where the system has been compromised," said Mara Georges, the city's top lawyer.

On Friday, following Tomczak's guilty plea, Daley said he has never condoned wrongdoing in his administration "no matter who it is."

The "principal purpose" of Tomczak's political street army was to campaign for politicians blessed by "top political operatives of the political organization supporting the mayor of Chicago," the plea agreement said.

The political work included passing out campaign literature and knocking on doors for candidates favored by the mayor's office, typically on weekends.

Tomczak usually got his marching orders from Sorich or a second, undisclosed official in the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, according to the plea agreement.

In May, Daley insisted that he did not know who issued Tomczak's political marching orders. Asked how that was possible, Daley shot back, "Everybody supported my campaign. I will tell you that. Everybody knows that.''

Tomczak held meetings at his office in the city's Jardine Filtration Plant during work hours to organize campaign efforts, according to the plea agreement. The meetings typically involved between five and 10 Water Management officials who worked in Tomczak's political organization.

To lobby for rewards for his political workers, Tomczak would meet at intergovernmental affairs offices in City Hall also while on city time.

He described for prosecutors how other city officials also met with Sorich to arrange promotions for "politically active city employees."

Tomczak "was aware that he was competing with coordinators of other political organizations to win promotions through Sorich," the plea agreement said.

Tomczak also admitted that his organization's members were promoted to positions that were supposed to be filled without political considerations under the Shakman federal consent decree.

The plea agreement noted that Tomczak, ironically, knew the Shakman regulations well because he had once unsuccessfully sued the city. Tomczak, who retired as first deputy commissioner, contended that he had been fired in violation of the federal decree for supporting Jane Byrne's re-election bid in 1983.

On multiple occasions, Tomczak believed "unqualified or less competent" candidates won out, and he let Sorich know of their "relative incompetence," according to the plea agreement.

"Sorich's typical response was for [Tomczak] to `Do the best you can with him,' " the plea agreement said.

In addition to bribes, Tomczak also solicited campaign contributions from trucking companies for Daley, the 's 11th Ward Democratic organization, the Committee to Elect John Daley, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) and Tomczak's son, former Will County State's Atty. Jeff Tomczak.